The Devils sooty Brother
by Bai-Feng333
Summary: Written for the "Wallflower OC Story Contest" by eha- The Hunter Orfeo Muscipula just wanted to meet a colleague, but something get in his way. THANKS SO MUCH to Nispedana for Betareading all of it! Your the best!
1. Prologue

Bai Feng: This was written for the "**Wallflower OC Story Contest****" **by  
A biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iig Thank you to Nispedana because she beta-read this story!Thank you! Thank you Thank you Thank you!  
(Even if I still love my metaphorss and won´t write any less :P I am sorry, dear.)  
Have fun!

******The Devil´s sooty Brother**

Prologue:

_" When the Innkeeper refused to give back what he stole from the Soldier, the Soldier grabbed the Violin the Devil gave him, as payment, for his three-year__ employment. And __following what the Devil taught him, the Soldier begun playing the Violin. __  
Suddenly, all people had to dance for—_Oh—_the soldier played so wonderfully on the Violin! There even came the dead, rising from their deathbeds to accompany the living as they danced, because—Oh—the soldier played so wonderful on the Violin!"__  
__  
__-The Devil´s sooty Brother,__  
European Fairytale_

Orfeo Muscipula woke up from his slumber, woken by the first morning sunshine that cut so sharp through air across the thick leafy canopy where he laid, like a knife of light cut through the green. Orfeo let out a small yawn, and shifted positions—gesturing to sit down.

He lay on a bed made of moose and wet earth. His cloth, the flute, and even just new written wet Music scores was scattered on the ground. His eyes blankly surveyed his surroundings, noting how much effort he had to sacrifice in the name of neatness. He looked, and looked around…

And paused.

He wasn´t alone.

He looked over to the young naked woman next to him, covered by her long bird wings. It spread away from her pale delicate arms as if they were soft blankets, covering her body. At that moment, a thought that every man in his early twenties given the same circumstances would have came to mind:

_**Awesome… I slept with a siren!**_

But as she slightly shifted positions, his chest thumped, as his formerly sleepy mind abruptly reminded him of that legend that was the reason for his presence in this forest. The legend of Orpheus, to be precise, that told about a man who was beheaded by Sirens. He was said to be a 'fool' who refused to love any other woman other than his dead wife.

It told of how they threw his still-singing head into the ocean—the dark waves accompanying the sinking head as the siren continued laughing loud and screaming like banshees the whole time, until she was certain the head was lost in the waves, swallowed by the ocean's dark depths like from a dark mouth.

Orfeo paled and swallowed hard. And as his situation changed from a seemingly comfortable position to a very dangerous one, his thoughts did as well.

_**Damn…I slept with a siren!**_

His gaze drifted over from the lovely line her curves made, to the metallic shimmering bird claws that replaced her hands and feet. Cruel claws, he noted, claws that could shred a human as easy as if he was a thin piece paper. Just like what they did with Orpheus.

Once again, anxious thoughts flooded his mind.

_**FUCK, I slept with a siren!**_

As carefully as he could he winded himself out of the Sirens delicate arms, praying passionately to god and buddah and every other supposedly powerful creature that the woman wouldn´t wake up. Like a beaten animal the young man crawled across the ground to collect the music scores and his other chattels.

But a sudden jolt of hard coldness slithered along his skin.  
It was bird claws, and they closed around his wrist.  
His eyes jerked in fear.  
_  
__  
__**HOLY FUCKING DAMN THREE TIMES CURSED SHIT! I SLEPT WITH A SIREN!**_

The young man felt cold sweat ran down his back.  
At least he was still breathing.  
His dark eyes wandered down to the Siren.

He nearly screamed in relief when he saw her still sleeping. He looked around carefully by reflex, and with all the prudence his shaking fingers was able to muster, he shoved the garb of the sleeping woman around his wrist, so he could steal away.

But when his black eyes drifted back to the round lines of the sleeping creature lying on the bed made of wet earth and moose, he couldn´t help it—a wide smile crept up his gaunt face.

_**Awesome**__, _he grinned_, __**I slept with a siren**__!_


	2. The Girl

_****_Chapter 1: The Girl

Orfeo wiped the sweat crawling down his chin as he looked at the view of a nearby city.  
_'Finally'_ he mused in relief. After all, he needed more than an hour to reach the forest boundary and _another_ two hours until his feet no longer sunk into the wet earth and started hitting hard, and very much tangible, stone pavements.

On the other hand, he only allowed himself to breath in relief when he finally reached the small town, as he was finally saved from the possible wrath of the second actor, from his latest amorous tête-à-tête. (Not that the siren had any reason to complain! Ha!)

The young man headed unerringly to the town´s train station, his dark eyes were stuck on the screen of his Mobile phone. It even reflected his wide smile: "We have to meet!" He tipped the SMS fast: "I have something I have to show you! Tomorrow! Same place, Same time!"

He sent the SMS, and looked up abstractedly, and simultaneously he stumbled over a child that just crossed his way.  
Along with a thick bundle of curses, legs, harsh words, arms and yelps from the two of them, they crushed to the ground and rolled perpetually until a crowd within Train station hall stopped their involuntarily journey.

"Oh God be damned!" Orfeo grunted harshly and grabbed the child´s shirt to pull her violently off him, as if she was just an annoying fly. To defend herself, the child kicked strongly between his ribs, making him curse even more. She glared at him just before she hopped into the crowd, effectively disappearing from his sight.

It was the first time this day that his smile completely faded from his thin lips. Whipping his head around as he looked for the girl, he cough, cursed, and gasped. He dropped down on his knees and looked around, wheezing like an old man.

And yet the crowd did not move.  
Motionless, the trains stood on the dirty tracks. Thick mist, white and thick, slowly crawled over the platform as if it was a hungry animal slyly creeping up to its prey.  
Heavy mumbling was heard across, and the train station soon seemed like it was frozen in time.

Orfeo composed himself quickly. "Isn't the trains leaving, Gramps?" Orfeo´s long, thin fingers tipped quizzically on an older mens shoulder, like the slow tact of a waltz performance.

"They won´t let us." The older man paused, breath visible due to his thick beard. Similarly thick eyebrows furrowed as he watched Orfeo´s thin and tanned fingers as if they were spider legs, "The alderman stopped the trains."

"Why would they do that, gramps?" the tact became faster, nervously, jumpy.

"Don´t know, boy. The guys on the other side of the crowd said the alderman want to capture some criminal and don´t want him to leave the town. Like we look like some criminal, do we?"

Orfeo chuckled, shaking his head: "You sure don't, gramps. I hope I didn´t either. You know how I could get to the next town? "

"You may try to bribe the guards on the streets. But you will need a day to reach the next town by foot." He answered thoughtfully, musing that _his_ old legs certainly wouldn´t be able to carry him that long way, but Orfeo just smiled wide as he always did.

But in the end, that wide smile of his hid the fact that he really wouldn´t be able to wait that long. Orfeo wasn´t a patient person at all…, so he ended up turning away from the old man to do just that.

"Ya' going?"  
Orfeo nodded.

"I have to. I have a rendezvous tomorrow."

"She must be pretty, if you want to go that far for her." The man grinned slyly, and so did Orfeo. He tipped his long finger over his smiling lips and winked like the cheeky little boy he might or might not be.

"Don´t ask. Even if she is, I wouldn´t say to you, because you would sure pinch my ´_girlfriend_`!"  
And after waving a short goodbye, he went to take the old man's advice.

The foggy day greeted him when Orfeo leaved the town.  
With an empty wallet, no less. The fog was so thick that the clouds chased before the weak sun just as haunting animals, that tried to catch the golden light like a limping rabbit.

Thanks to that, Orfeo needed a long time until he noticed that someone followed him.

And Orfeo absolutely hated being followed.  
More than he hated having people around him.

(The only exception would be a warm women in his bed, and people that are useful for him but Orfeo actually preferred the first.)

So as Orfeo swiftly turned around to catch his stalker. The surprised yell that came after was music to his ears. It was not surprising then, that an even more pleasant sensation roused the moment his hand was able to completely surround his followers neck and choke the breath out of him. Well, _almost._

He realized that his follower was so light that his thin arms could lift the person up. _Too light_, he noted, and in the end it was him who huffed in surprise. In the end it was Orfeo who huffed in surprise, so that the little girl with the strangly purposeful kick landed yelping on her bottom. Orfeo could only glare.

"You!" He exclaimed, voice so high that it nearly broke a glass if ever it was there. His smile was long gone. "You _brat_! Of all people—why are YOU following me?!"

The girl looked defiantly up to him and the young men just jumped back a little, just in case she wanted to kick him like she did at the train station (Not like he was afraid of a little Girl! …Well, maybe a little…).

"You are a Hunter, are you?"

Orfeo was pulled back from his reverie. He blinked perplex and looked down just so incredulous at the girl like she had a glowing halo. But the little girl took advantage of his lowered guard just stand up to stretch her little neck and started scrutinizing the man before her.

"You… wear your license with a ribbon around your neck under your shirt. I saw it when we rolled over the ground. You're a Hunter. Hunter help people, so you have to help me." She said as a-matter-of-factly. Orfeo, upon absorbing her little statement, frowned very deeply.

"Eh…what? No!" Orfeo grunted like a dog, and one that was ready to bite. "I have to meet a colleague tomorrow! And I have better things to do than helping a nasty, little bra-…"  
"If you don´t help me, I will run back and tell the Headhunter that stuck at the trainstation that you have a hunter license."

His eyes twitched.

_**That Brat!**_

Orfeo swallowed hard. The girl gaze at him, slowly she stepped back, ready to run away and disappear to the safety of the fog. She stared at him, analytic and scrutinizing. She faced his very gaunt silhouette, long and thin arms and legs that held no visible muscles, and her eyes soon went over to his tanned, worn out face… hollow cheeks defining its contours, framed by the black locks he called hair and held such dark eyes in its midst. His eyes were not quite human, but seemed like dull dark coalpieces lay in the dark ringed eye-sockets.  
No, Orfeo wasn´t a strong nor was he healthy man. He was scraggy, thin…, _weak_.

"They won´t waste a chance to get your hunter license. It will be ten against one, you will die. You have not the slightest chance."

Just when she wanted to run away, it was Orfeos hand that suddenly grabbed her collar to held her back.

"Okay! Okay! Clam down!" He grunted, he didn't seem to be any less annoyed.

"Geeeeeeez! You little brat…!" The young man bit his lips and pulled her closer to make sure she won't escape. He mustered some composure, but his glare did not soften.

"How old are you, Girl?"

She held up nine fingers proudly, wide smirking like Cheshire cat: "I am nine years old!"

For the ninth time that day, Orfeo's eyes twitched.  
Blackmailed by a fucking _nine-year-old_.  
Orfeos self-esteem just shrunk to… no, he'd rather not even think about it.

"So what´s your name? Where do you come from?" she asked and looked up at him unimpressed, like he was a gaunt horse on the market that no one wanted to buy. Orfeo just grunted.

"Don´t ask that question, Girl. I don´t like questions."

"But _I_ certainly do."

The girl remained impassive, but Orfeo's mood turned even more sour.

_**Oh, THAT Brat!**_

"I am the devil´s sooty brother." He stated, relatively out-of-nowhere, and started massaging his nose. Soon a smile was on his face again, but this was fake and barely holding on, it was shaky like a thin mask.

"Well…?"

Orfeo kept silent. He hated questions, answering questions demanded that he had to be involved with somebody else, to have a feeling for the other, and try to talk to them using the right words without **insulting** or **confusing **them. But Orfeo was honest enough to himself. He knew that he wasn´t a empathetic man, and neither was he patient enough to answer questions.

Not in the least, not a bit. No understatements involved.

Hence, his answers were all straight to the point. "I came right from hell, so stop asking me questions."

"You know why they stopped the trains?" Orfeo killed the urge to beat up this little brat for the moment, when her face darkened like a shadow ran over it. It caught his curiosity. The girl continued, as if her question was rhetorical.

"Before some months someone started to dig out the graves on the cemetery and steal the bones from it. And some weeks after it the murder started in the town and the murderer stole the bones from them…" She paused, for effect. "Just like he did from the corpses on the graveyard."  
Her thin body twitched a little, like a icy cold hand stroked over her back and her thin fingers folded around Orfeos tanned hand. The little hand searched for warmth.

"I had seen him when I was around the graveyard and followed him to where he brought the body. My mother cried every night since it started and I don´t want her to cry anymore. I will lead you to his place and you will stop him. A Hunter should be able do this."

"What is he doing when he heads back to his place? Was he humming?" His voice had a strange sound in it, unfitting, like the sound of a child´s singsong when it awaited new toys.

"Y..yes. He did! How do you know?" The girl looked at him puzzled when he held her hand tighter, harder, like an iron vice closing around her little fingers. Orfeo started laughing.

"Show me the way!"

tbc.


	3. The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Chapter2: The Pied Piper of Hameln

Thick lines of fog hung between the old black boles, the lines of fog luring them like eager witchfingers—greedy—greedy to catch Orfeo and the girl.

Early autumn led the forest to its temporary but inevitable death. The trees were black and cruel—putrefaction, a ghastly sickness that could not be avoided. The Forest of the Siren, where the trees were still full of live and green with vigor and the earth to his feet had been full of life and grass, was just like an lost echo in the back of Orfeos head.

"The trees are dying… that´s strange." The girl looked around puzzled, she pulled the young man at his hand behind her like a dog on a leash: "The trees at the graveyard we pass before were still healthy."  
Orfeo couldn´t hold himself back and bust in laughter, it sounded so croaky like one of his neckvertebra had askewed in place and scratched brutally against his trachea: "Oh, your stupidity is really funny, brat!"

The girl suddenly turned her head to him and the young man felt himself twitch back a little as if he feared she would kick him again. He swallowed hard, suddenly her little hand in his felt like a iron chain that hold him like a prisoner: "Okay, okay! Clam down, girl!" he said and lift his free hand helplessly.  
"Why am I silly, huh?! Like YOU know what happened to the trees!" she snarled and grimaced her little face to a petulant snoot.

"Oh, I actually do, little dummy." He answered with a wide smile and chuckled lightly, like the girl was a more stupid than she actually was and he had to teach her better: "You sure know the feeling when someone step to near by your side and you become just sick by standing next to him? Imagine everyone have a aura. That person´s aura is flooded by his bad thoughts, feelings and horrible wishes and when he come near to you his aura is tainting yours. Your getting sick, by just standing at his side. But not only human have that aura but animals and trees and stones. End somones life always leaved your aura tainted, it´s because of your conscience, you were raised that murder were bad and you can´t leave that thought. There is always a shadow that will stay there like a cruel tumor that drives you crazy. A murder poisoned your own aura. Those trees were sickned by the aura of the murderer that pass them every day and because they can´t walk away like we could, they have no other choice than stay here and die."  
The young man chuckled cheerful like a little boy and the girl looked frowning up to him: "That sounds like bullshit."

**Oh, That BRAAAAAAAAAAT!  
**  
Orfeos eyes twitched annoyed and a low snarl raised from deep in his thin throat, like from a dog that was ready to bite. That was exactly the reason why he hated to answer questions, whenever he tried the listener were just to silly to understand his explanations. Of course HIS explanations were just perfect and awesome, just the listener were always a bunch of idiots that didn´t understand his flawless genius, they were just worthless flies beneath his dignity.

"But assuming your right, when the murderer´s aura is tainted and he feel bad about it, why is he still doing it?" the girl asked and continued leading both of them through the gray cloth of fog. Orfeo just grimaced like a stubborn child: "Well, because of the fairytales, I think. Now stop asking, girl."  
"Eh?" The girl looked perplexed up to him: "What have fairytales to do with a murderer? Fairytales are about cute princess meeting their prince and not about a murderer stealing bones!"  
Orfeo needed all his willpower to hush down the little voice singing tempting in his head, what pleasure it would be to beat up that nasty little brat: "That fairytale about the singing bone. Oh come on, girl, don´t tell me your mother didn´t tell you this fairytales!"  
He was truly apalled, but the girl just looked at him with that unchanged blank expression that it was like a sharp knife in his own pride. He snarled moody: „Today´s youth…darn it."

The fog circled both of them like a hunting animal, waiting eagerly for it´s booty to come and while they disappeared in the dead forest Orfeo started to tell the fairytale: "Once upon a time there were two brothers. They were the twinsons of a king and they loved eachother very much. But the king told them that only one of them can become the next king and send them in the forest to do a exam. But in the forest one twin killed his brother and buried him under a bridge, so only he can become the next king and marry the beautiful princess. Years pass and one day a herder find the bones under the bridge. Because he use to be bored he made a flute out of the bones so he could play it when he watch his sheep. But as soon as he started playing the flute a voice echoing in the melody that told him about the murdered prince. It was the prince that sang in the flutes melody and he wanted revenge."  
Orfeos tanned hand danced in the air like to a tact of a not ringing melody, he smiled, wildly, cheerfully, and his black eyes shining with a excited light.

"So just by playing music on the corpse bone, he brought them back to life?" The girl felt like a cold hand stroked down her back when Orfeo looked down at her, smiling, there was a strange darkness ran over his face, like a deep back shadow that made the girls skin crawl like crazy : "Yeah. That´s what the fairytale told us. Music and death are unbreakable connected. And the murderer seems to know that too, that's why he steal the bones. You need something from the person…bones, for example. And a special song."  
"Always? You know a lot about those fairytales?" the girl shake up this strange feeling of being a rabbit followed by a snake, the way they were on had become steep and she huffed a little as she continue to pull the mans hand behind her.

"You know I hate questions." He answered, grunting a little moody: "I know those fairytales because of my family. Now you know it. Stop asking."

"Why because of your family?"

**THAT brat!**

Orfeo just wanted to stamp on the earth and yell at her to shut up, but he thought far too high of himself that he could lower himself to such a primitive gesture. His mouth smiled, but the smile twitched annoyed: "My people are traveling to the world and collect these myths and secrets so those can´t harm anybody. Musicfairytales were my bedtimestorys. But my people opinions become too strict to me, so I leaved them."  
With a wide gesture he pointed at his tanned earlap hidden behind his dark locks and only now the girl could see the white scar tissue tattering brutally his earlaps like white claw: "As a goodbye present my grandfather ripped out the golden creoles, the symbol of my people."

They were silent for a some minutes, silence was the echo from the dead forest around them until the girl asked again: "Why you leave your people?"

From one moment to another his smile faded complety and left a gaunt, scraggy mask, his lips became such a thin line that they nearly disappear in his tanned face. There was a shadow running over his face, that seemed to suck out every other word until he had no voice anymore: "…because my little brother…."  
His other words get swallowed by nothingness, disappeard in his thin throat.

And he said no more word, even as the girl continued asking.

The ruin raised high from before them in the sky, so ragged and tattered like the dead black branchwood around them.  
Orfeo find himself frowning speechless, before he pull hard at the hand of the little girl and made her stop abruptly: "Seriously! A dark ruin in the middle of a creepy forest? What cliché is this?"  
The girl blinked confused: "What do you mean?"

"I mean…look at that thing. It literally says ´here lives a creepy serial killer. Enter me and you will die a cruel and painful death´. Why you didn´t told the police about it?" Orfeo felt like a little legless mouse in front of the cat. The building literally screamed "**DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM**".

"I did. They wouldn´t believe me, the body they found here were already munched by the rats that they can´t recognize anymore as the victims of the murderer. So They said those bodys were poor vagabonds and leaved. That´s why I take you to this place. You're a Hunter." She explained with a sweet smile.  
Orfeo felt just like a big rock fall of from the sky and buried him alive, his knees shaked and he could feel cold sweat running down his back like a frosty hand: "…and you wanted to bother yourself to tell me about this when, brat….?" He mumbled weakly.  
Flabby like a washer he let himself pulled by the girl into the building and both of them get swallowed by the darkness.

The inside of the old building was just as black as night and the sounds of thousands of little feets echoed through the deep shadows.  
Rats.  
Orfeo felt himself twitch back like a little child, he had never liked rodents, neither he has liked anything connected to those little evil beasts. When he had leaved his people and travelled alone those creatures once bite in his feet when he was sleeping outside. The stony ground under them crunched dangerously and the young man wasn´t above to think that there were maybe a lot of deep vault under them, that would swallowed them like a eager mouth if the ground break.  
Suddenly the girl stopped.  
He frowned: "What´s wrong, girl?"  
"I don´t know which way now…I haven´t followed him inside the building and the police wouldn´t let me come with them when they were here." She answered slowly and Orfeos sign of relief overshadowed her words, so he turned around snappy: "Sooooooooooooooooooo if it´s like this we could just turn around and call for hel-" the girl pulled him back with all her force, she yelped a little and opened her little mouth for a thick barrage of objections. (Orfeo was a coward after all.)

A loud **CRACK** silent her.

In the next moment Orfeo grabbed her shoulders and pushed her brutally to the wall.

Another crack guzzled her wail of pain when she crushed hard against the cold stone.

With another crack the ground under Orfeos feet crushed down.

The girl tried to jump forward to hold the man, but all she manage to catch were the strap of his bag, the thick leather ripped loud like thunder. The young man crushed down and hold himself up the hole with his thin arms panically sliding over the rest of the ground, looking for hold.  
But his hands grabbed into nothingness.  
Orfeo disappeared with a loud yell in the darkness of the vault under her, leaved her alone behind with his bag.

For a moment of shock she just stood there leaned at the wall, staring into the deep darkness to her feet where the young man had stand just a second before, but now that place was cruel empty. The safe line of the ground she was standing on, was just broad enough that her hoes had a good stand, and so she moved slowly to the side, like a fleeing crayfish. When she finally reached the safe ground next to the big hole she breath out in relief and let her shaking knees crush to the stone to her feet. Like a saving anchor in storm she hold Orfeo´s bag.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her from behind.

Her shocked scream died when the man pushed his other hand over her mouth, her wide open eyes looked up just to meet the cheerful glimming eyes of the murderer, looking at her so excited like a artist looking at his new canvas: "My, my. Seems like I don´t have to go out and search for the new bones!"

Orfeo woke up from the creepy sound of thousand feets scratching the stony ground. He lay in a vault, the darkness greeted him. He groaned loudly, his head hurt like it did just explode in a thousand lightings. When a wet little nose touch his bare hand he was suddenly wide awake and pushed the squeaking rat away, like a annoying fly. With a little jump he saved himself on a stony rising, but the mass of rats already covered the whole ground. They were a grey mass just as the ground were a moving creature with no single spot to escape to.  
_  
"…the body they found here were already munched by the rats that they can´t recognize them anymore as the victims of the murderer…"_

Orfeo swallowed hard and pressed himself panically to the stony wall.

With every new horror sticken breath leaving his thin throat, the rats come nearer to him.

The murderer pulled her behind him with his hand around her neck, like she was a little kitten he wanted to drown in the fountain.  
She hold Orfeo´s bag so hard as if it holds the key to her salvation. But as deeper she was dragged into the labyrinth of devious vaults, the thought of that she won´t be saved, become stronger and stronger like a growing sickniss.

She didn´t struggle when they finally reached a little room, that was so deep hidden in the stony bowels of the old building that she didn´t wonder at all why the police didn´t found it that time. The murderer let the door open, of course he didn´t had to fear anyone anymore.  
Like a anxious little mouse she squeaked as her gaze drifted over to the ceiling were blank bones hung down, like a ghoulish wind chime.  
The murderer turned his back to her and stepped to a old table, cheerfully humming: "Child bones…yeah, yeah, why I hadn´t this idea earlier? Children can see more than adults…they are special…this time.."  
He hummed peacefully, his hands stroke over knifes and balades that glimmed dull, caked with old blood that already turned black: "…this time it will work…"  
The little girl sat in a corner, her thin shoulders shaked like crazy and in the little hope that the murderer would just forget her when she was silent enough, she buried her tooth in her little fist to swallow all the scared sound coming deep from her throat.

The murderer hummed happily like a little boy and far away, so far away, that nearly nobody heard it, there was sounding a fluteplay in it.

The child had bite already so hard on her fist, that a thin trickle of bright redness poured down her thin arm, on the very edge of her awareness she noticed that some rats come through the opened door.

The murderer finally grabbed the right tool and turned around to her, making her wimper loud.

She clinged into the leather bag in her arms.  
**Where was Orfeo?!  
**Her little arms shaked like a sick body in delirium.**  
Why…Why Orefo wouldn´t save her?  
**Like a wet fish the bag sliped out of her trembeling thin arms and crushed hard down on the floor.

Something clattered dry inside.**  
**  
_"_

_My people collected those musicfairytales, so no one can be harmed by them anymore."_

The inside of the bag spread over the cold floor, musicsheets flooded the ground like a wave of paper.

_"But their rules become to strict to me, so I leaved them."_

Something clattered between the music sheets_._

"Because my little brother…."

Between the sheets stripped bones spread over the floor, short bones, small like from a little child. A bare skull rolled over the ground, the brainpan was crushed and the lifeless skull smiled hollow up to the little girl like the little boy the skull once belonged to, once smiled cheerfully up to Orfeo.  
His older brother.

"…died. I have to bring him back. I will use my people secrets._**I will bring him back**__!"_

Orfeo wouldn´t come to save her.  
He was just caged in his own madness.  
No one would save her.

But before the murderer can made the right step to her direction, he stumbled over a rat before his feet.

Confused the murderer looked down to his feet, watching the wave of rats that flood the floor like a arbor of grey.  
The fluteplaying filled the room now already so loud that it echoed from the stony walls and let the bones hanging above move, like in a weak wind.

Suddenly the first rat bite the murderers feet.

He screamed, and jumped back, but the floor was already so full that he stepped on another moving grey body.

Again little tooth buried in his feet.

Before he could react the little creatures climbed up his legs, buried their teeth in his flesh whenever he moved a inch back or tried to pull the rats from him.  
Thousands of needles seemed to burry down in his body and he screamed in panic, in fear, in blank pain.  
He tried to use the knife in his hand to kill one, but the rats already reached to his face and bite in his bare skin, until all he saw was a flute of his own blood running hot down his face and the grey moving bodys.  
The murderer didn´t even noticed how he fell to the ground, so hard that his bones crushed like glass. The rats had opened his throat so that blood spilled out in a hot, steaming flute and covered the cold floor. Blood filled his throat, floaded his lungs and his mouth like a red wave of warmth.

Suddenly the fluteplaying stopped.

The rats scattered the next moment, like they were fleeing flies.

But a hard boot pressing on the murderers open throat prevent the murderer all the other moves.

He swallowed his own blood, coughing, nearly drowned in the hot redness.

Orfeo lift the flute from his tanned lips and smiled down at the murderer, his cole black eyes glimming in a exciting light, like he had the fun of his life: "First…" he said and leaned over the murderer until their noses nearly touch, so that the smell of the murderers blood filled all his airways like a sweet parfume: "First: If you want to bring someone back to life. You have to use THAT PERSONS bones."

"Second…" His tanned fingers grabbed into the others hair and pulled them so hard that he had to look at the young man, thick blood filled the murderers mouth and swallowed all his words so he kept silence:  
"Second: You have to find that special song to play the bones right. It´s easier to use Orpheus method to bring your beloved back. To find Orpheus song. That song that allowed Orpheus to go deep into the Tataros and melted the deadkings heart, so Orpheus was allowed to bring back his dead wife to the living."

"Third: You have to go to the Tataros yourself. Remember that for the next time. Well…" Orfeos black eyes narrowed in a friendly smile and he watched amused the murderer coughing and wheezing in his own pool of blood: "Better you remember that in your next life…seems like you will not have a second chance."

The girl didn´t said a word, she was silent, her thin body trembled like a leaf in the wind. She had already bite so deep in her fist that she reached the bare bone, but she was not able to move, she was like frozen.

With that last words Orfeo stepped over the murderer to the girl, smiling cheerfully, like a happy little child. He kneeled down carefully and with soft tenderness he collected the bones back in his bag, softly stroking over his younger brother hollow skullcheek, just like the older brother he was. He looked to the girl, that just stared at him and he smiled: "Oh, don´t look at me like this. I told you that I know much about those fairytales. At least now you know the reason why."  
He stand up again and stretched himself, his friendly smile hide the cruel nature of the young man. But he had always know it, he had always known his nature, his fate, he had always been honest to himself and so he just smiled, knowing the flity, cruel murderer he was himself, knowing that he would do everything to bring back his little brother, knowing that he would go in the deepest of hell to protect his little brother, knowing that he was just a monster among monsters:  
"Now hurry up, brat, we have to go back to the police and show them this place. I have a rendezvous tomorrow."

When the girl had described Orfeo the murder, the young man had hoped that he would find another hint for bringing back his little brother. But in the end the murderer was just a pathetic amateur who didn´t even understood the true nature of the fairytales that were once Orfeos bedtimestories. But for Orfeo everyone was an amateur expect himself.

The girl didn´t said a word until they were back in her hometown again, for all the terror and cruel nightmares that will hunt her from that day on in her sleep for the rest of her life, she had surprisingly less to say to the young man. This time the police found the right murderer, covered in his own blood, bitten to dead by rats like his victimes body were. What a cruel irony, that rats never cared if the murderer or the victims were their meal, in the end they all taste the same. This time the evidence in the old building were overhelming.

Those pictures would never leaved the little girl, they would follow her like the black claws of a nightmare for the rest of her life, being the seat of her own madness.

But that was just fine, Orfeo thought for himself smiling. While he entered the not longer stopped train to the next town whistling cheerfully the song of the murdered prince, that song that lay on his tanned lips like a sweet drip of honey, since they had been swallowed by the fog in the dead forest.  
**  
**

**He had never care about her anyway.**

Tbc..


	4. Epilogue

Epilogue:

Orfeo reached the Café more than a hour to late.

He cursed like a stubborn little child and let his glare wander unpatient through the faces of the Café visitors.  
Finally he noticed her, sitting hidden in a corner, holding a thick book in her little hands and curiously scanning the pages, like she just wanted to jump in it and disappear.

It would need two other years until she would be able to control her inhuman sense of hearing, two more years until she would be the serene Nen-master that would meet the last Kuruta in Yorkshin, but right now she wasn´t more than a girl, shaken by the lost illusion of silence.  
The silence she lost forever.  
And so Orfeo noticed not for the first time that she had stuffed her ears with wax so deep until that stuff nearly welled out of her ears, just to escape the world were every breath was a loud scream, every word was a roar of thunder an every laughter a broiling knife into her head. But still her ears that were encrusted with old dry blood, were sharp and so Orfeo didn´t wonder that she turned in his direction before he could greet her: "Hello Orfeo. Your very late."

It had only been a year since the Sonata of Darkness changed her body and Orfeo noticed that she still moved with that overanxious prudence, like a child near the fire that feared to burn herself.  
Orfeo smiled widely: "Yeah, sorry about that. But your sure wouldn´t guess what happened on my way here, Senritsu!"  
"The way I know you, my friend…" the young woman scrutinized him worried while he sat down across the table: "It was something really disgusting and it was all your fault."  
The young men couldn´t hold himself back and laughed out loud, so loud that Senritsu covered her ears with her little hand and flinched back in sharp pain, like he just slapped her.

"Oh that is not wrong at all. But this time it wasn´t my fault, I swear. For _once_ at least." He still chuckled a little: "But let´s save the fun for later, Senritsu…" with a wide move he grabbed into his leatherbag and pulled out a thick fabricfolder, the folder that was full with the musicsheets he had collected the morning before when he run away from the siren: "I managed to find some new parts of Orpheus´ Threnos. You remember they said he was ripped in pieces by sirens?"  
Senritsu nodded a little, her big eyes fixated the folder like it was sweet treasure.

"That time he sang exactly that Threnos even when his head sunk down in the ocean! That Threnos that melted the deadkings heart, so that he allowed Orpheus to bring back his beloved to life. I visit a siren yesterday and she was so nice to sing me the parts of the song she remembered so I can co-write."  
Senritsu watched him while frowning a little, her soft voice was like a soothing lullaby as she asked: "How did you coaxed the siren to help you?"

"You have three guesses, Senritsu." Orfeo smirked.

She seemed disgusted: "**Lecher**."

"You know me so _well_…" he smirked even wider, his smirk was like a open wound in his tanned face: "If my research going on so well like they does before I will soon have the whole song. Then we can go down into the Tataros to bring my brother back to life. Just like Orpheus bring back his beloved Eurydice!" His black eyes catched hers and in the next moment he raised his tanned hand to his smiling mouth in a unhonest apologizing gesture, like he´d care about her: "And of course… your ardently loved friend that played the Sonata, too. Doesn´t that sounds good?"

Orfeo never had been good at reading other peoples faces, he had never care about other than him and his little brother, he had never needed more to live his live and so he didn´t noticed Senritsu glance.

_She looked at him pitying._

Senritsu knew the fairytales, Senritsu knew Orpheus Legend.

Once upon a time Orpheus had been the most beautiful singer and was married to his beloved Eurydice. But Eurydice died and Orpheus wandered down the darkest paths until he was standing before Hades and Hades wife Persphone. Orpheus sang his Threnos, sang about his love, his luck, his live, his tears, so that even the dead started to shed tears. Persephone cried about the Poets pain and Hades who was himself a husband, who himself loved his wife deeply, who himself would do everything for her, granted Orpheus his wish. He said to the poet that he have to lead Eurydice back to the living on himself, but that he have to lead her without looking back at her until they were back in the warm light of sunlight.  
Orpheus agreed and started to walk back to the world of the living, so Hades send Eurydice back from the shadows to follow her beloved, but then, Orhpheus started to doubt the words of the deadsking.  
What responsible have a god for a human to hold his promise?  
Who would judge a god for breaking a promise?  
The doubt were like claws in his chest that slowed his steps and right before they stepped into the saving light of the upper world, his doubt win.  
Orpheus turned around.  
And saw the lovely face of his beloved one last time smiling at him, because he broke his promise to not look back and so she was pulled back into the blackness back to the shadows, that everyone will become one day.  
This time eternally.

Senritsu knew this legend, but in the end she was sensitive and gentle because she known how to read other people. She also knew that this obsession of Orfeo was the only thing that keep him alive, like the last saving anchor in the storm of his own madness.

So a sad smile, something Orfeo would never be _able_ to notice, twisted her lie as she answered quietly: "Yes, Orfeo. That sounds good."

There was a sad truth in those fairytales, a truth that was unspoken but always there, clinging in the listeners heart like a cold shadow. Fairytales were the tale to teach the children the world around them, there core was the truth for the children to learn.  
Because if there was nothing sure in this always changing world, there was one thing that was certain:

_**The immutability of death.**_

End.

* * *

Autorecomment: Hm...Orfeo turned out to be so merysueisch...damn it.

The really funny thing is that i made up his characters like 2 years ago. But only now I had some referencec about soziopathy. Interesting is that Orfeo fit all points to be a soziopath, without me doing researchs for it. haaaa~  
Even if he is a Gary-stue, I still like him. :)

There is no chance t bring back the dead. Orfeo is haunting a dream..or more a nightmare. And for this illusion he is willing to use everything and everyone.

But in the end, I can´t really figure out if i should blame him or not for what he do.  
Orfeo knows that what he's doing is wrong. He understands that there is something inherently not good about murdering and maiming people. Maybe he even knows that the fairytales aren´t true, that´s impossible to bring back dead people. For sure he KNOWS it. But he simply doesn´t care about this. What makes him seem so ambivalent is that he doesn't see any harm in being bad, because it's for a good reason: protecting his little brother. He has no issue with being a bad person…if it's for his little brother. His little brtoher is, for lack of a better term, orfeo's everything. He didn´t cares for and didn´t admires other people, he simply isn´t ABLE to do so. HIs dead brother is the center of his universe. And because of that, orfeo can go out and be terrible without thinking twice, he even ignores the truth about the fairytales he had heard since his birth. He is simply protecting his reason for living.


End file.
